Kyoto part 3

After our wonderful time spent with monkeys at Arashiyama, we headed back to the Kyoto station area to find some dinner. Before we managed that, however, we decided to make a quick stop at a purikura machine.

After that we went back to our hostel (the amazing Hana Hostel which I highly recommend) to get some dinner advice. If we hadn’t of talked to the staff at Hana Hostel we probably would have ended up in a pretty generic place, but this place was not only difficult to find, but it had hardly any indicators on the outside that it was even a restaurant (as is often to way of really good Japanese restaurants in Japan…).

After that we decided to do onnnnneeeee last purikura!

I’ve since learned that I do pretty much the same face in all purikura pictures…

We were pretty tired that night from walking so much, so we decided to just hang out in the hostel!

In the morning we headed to Kiyomizu. On the walk from the bus stop to the temple, we spotted a small shrine so we decided to stop in and take some pictures.

After I took this picture I turned around and was surprised to see more geiko!

It seems they were there to do a photo shoot. We’re not entirely certain, but we think this maiko is about to make her debut as a full-fledged geiko, so she was getting her pictures taken for that. But then again we don’t really know anything about geisha/geiko/maiko…! It’s a complicated subject 🙂

After feeling a bit like stalkers we decided to make our way to Kiyomizu. Below is a pagoda we saw on the way.

We had to travel through some pretty twisty-turny streets to get there.

We finally made it to the top!

I bought my (beautiful) ticket at was ready to see Kiyomizu!

Here’s the sign you can see when you arrive, which tells you about Kiyomizu.

View from standing on the stage at Kiyomizu. Apparently, legend has it if you jump from Kiyomizu and survive, your wish will be granted! Thankfully no one attempted this while I was there.

Next I bought a fortune. When you buy a fortune, you will be given a sort of box that has sticks inside it. You shake the box and then pull out a stick from a small hole. The stick has a number on it, and that determines what fortune yet get. Unfortunately I was a little too excited and shook the box a little too vigorously, which resulted in a stick flying out. Obviously that had to be my stick. And, as fate would have it, I got the most unlucky fortune! I guess that’s what happens when you shake the box so hard sticks come flying out. So I had to tie my unlucky fortune up so it can blow away in the wind.

Next we stopped off at Jishu Shrine to see the Love Stone.

If you can walk the 18 meters safely between the two stones with your eyes closed, you will be granted luck in finding true love! Did I make it?? Of course not! When have ever been able to walk safely from point A to point B with my eyes OPEN??

Then we followed the path around to the point where we could actually take a picture of Kiyomizu. This view is what you might often see in pictures of Kiyomizu.

After Kiyomizu we headed to Heian Shrine where apparently I had terrible settings on my camera!

There were tons of terrible fortunes tied up on a tree here, so I didn’t feel so bad about my unlucky fortune from Kiyomizu.

Enjoying the shrine’s garden.

Good to know!

After that, we took the “Philosopher’s Path” (Tetsugaku no michi) to Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion). Unfortunately the sakura blossoms weren’t in bloom yet so the walk wasn’t quite as beautiful as it could have been. Then we made it to Ginkakuji. The view from the top of the path.

And that was the end of my trip! After that we went headed to the Shinkansen and went back to Tokyo!